106 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[January i, 1906. 



OBITUARY. 



WILLIAM F.. PAGE. 



THE death is reported of William Elias Page, general man- 

 ager of the Chicago-Bolivian Rubber Co., while on 

 his way from Bolivia, somewhere in the vicinity of San Anto- 

 nio, which Is 750 miles above Manaos, on the Madeira river. 

 The cablegram received in Boston gave no particulars, so that 

 at the time of writing it Is Impossible to decide whether this 

 brave adventurer came to his death through the upsetting of 

 his canoe and drowning, or from pernicious fever ; either cal- 

 amity being quite 

 possible, as the Ma- 

 deira river at the 

 time was very low. 



Mr. Page was one 

 of the pioneers in 

 the Amazon coun- 

 try. He represented 

 Henry A. Gould for 

 some time, and later 

 was in the crude 

 rubber business as a 

 trader at Manaos. 

 Since 1883 he has 

 spent alternate 

 years either in the 

 Amazon country or 

 in Bolivia, with the 

 exception of per- 

 haps two years, 

 when he was con- 

 nected with the Crude Rubber Co. in New York. On January 

 1 1, 1904, he left for Bolivia, going in from the West coast, and 

 labored most energetically to get a working force together for 

 the Chicago-Bolivian Rubber Co. in order to get out more 

 crude rubber. He also did much exploring. 



Mr. Page was of athletic build and Inured to tropical life 

 and, had he lived, would undoubtedly have done much to de 

 velop the riches of the Bolivian rubber forests. He was 49 

 years old, was a member of the Harvard class of '79, and one 

 whose knowledge of the greatest rubber producing area of the 

 world was most complete. He leaves two sons, both of whom 

 are connected with rubber houses, one being in the employ of 

 George A. Alden & Co., and the other of the Hood Rubber Co. 

 At a special meeting of the executive committee of the New 

 England Rubber Club, held on November 28, 1905, the follow- 

 ing resolutions, were passed and it was voted to appoint a com- 

 mittee to attend the memorial services as a mark of respect to 

 its late member, Mr. William Elias Page : 



Whereas, News has reached us of the death at San Antonio, Brazil, 

 South America, of our friend and fellow member, we the executive com- 

 mittee of the New England Rubber Club, in recognition of our loss and 

 of our esteem for his memory, record the following resolutions : 



KtsolveJ: That in the death of our fellow member, William Elias Page, 

 our association has lost a valued friend. 



Rfsolvfd: That th; rubber trade has been deprived of the benefit 

 which, regardless of self sacrifice, he had hoped to bring to it through 

 his research in the wilds of South America. 



Resolitd : That we extend to his widow and family, our deep and sin- 

 cere sympathy. 



Resolved : That these resolutions be spread upon the records of this 

 .\ssociation, and that a copy be engrossed and presented to his family. 



JOHN H. FLINT, President. 

 ARTHUR VV. STED.MAN, Vice President. 

 GEORGE P. WllITMORE, Treasurer. 

 tLSTON E. WADBROOK, Assistant Secretary. 



= Mr. James Ross Parsons, Jr.. United States consul general 

 in Mexico, lost his life on the evening of December 5, in Mexico 

 City, from being thrown from his carriage In a collision with an 

 electric street car. Mr. Parsons, who has been mentioned a 

 number of times In The India Rubber World in connection 

 with official reports on rubber planting prospects, was still a 

 young man and had not long been in office, but gave promise of 

 becoming a valuable member of the consular service. On 

 Christmas day his remains left Mexico City, with a military es- 

 cort detailed by President Diaz, destined for Mr. Parsons's na- 

 tive town in New York state. 



= Mr. Edward Atkinson, a well known social and political 

 economist of Boston, died suddenly on December 11, in his 

 seventy-ninth year. He influenced public opinion by his writ- 

 ings and addresses on many subjects, but in his relation to 

 business he was an insurance man, having been fora long time 

 president of the Boston Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Co., 

 which he helped to establish. The principle upon which this 

 company is based is the same as that governing the successful 

 Rubber Manufacturers' Mutual Insurance Co. 



ECHO OF A SWINDLE IN RUBBER. 



A REPORT reaching New York from Caracas since the last 

 ^* issue of this Journal states that the Fuchs Sv ndicaie have 

 foreclosed their mortgage, which means that the Para Rubber 

 Plantation Co. are now without property in Venezuela, the Ber- 

 thelr tract never having been acquired. 



It will be remembered that the Pard Rubber Plantation Co., 

 alias the International Rubber and Trading Co., alias the Two 

 Republics Chartered Co., began about 2/4 years ago to adver- 

 tise very widely the sale of shares of stock, claiming to be actual- 

 ly shipping rubber from Venezuela at a great profit, and with the 

 use of Mr. John Cudahy's name as head of the company, many 

 victims appear to have been separated from their money. 

 Readers of The India Rubber World know, however, that 

 the company's transactions were confined to the sale of shares, 

 such dividends as were paid having been returned to the Inves- 

 tors out of their own money. In other words, the whole busi- 

 ness was pure fraud, though there is no evidence that Mr. Cu- 

 dahy knew this until the promoters of the company had lined 

 their pockets and disappeared. 



There had to be some basis for the company originally, and 

 this was a contract to purchase a certain concession from the 

 Venezuelan government held by Belgian parties known as the 

 Fuchs Syndicate. The purchase price Is understood to have 

 been $125 000 in cash and $750,000 in shares of the Paia Rub- 

 ber Plantation Co. It appears that a payment of $25,000 was 

 actually made, and the mortgage covering the remainder has 

 now been foreclosed. 



Waterproofing Compound.— United States patent No. 

 802,670, granted to Maxmllian Toch, of New York, relates to a 

 waterproofing compound which admits of cold application, 

 composed of a mixture of hard bitumen dissolved in china- 

 wood oil and linseed oil, to which a solution cf gum kauri, 

 fused in linseed oil, and petroleum bitumen are added, and 

 which liquid is then reduced to a specific gravity of about 0.95 

 by the addition of turpentine, benzol, and naphtha. 



Amazon Cable. — The accounts for the year ended June 30. 

 of the Amazon Telegraph Co., Limited, for the first time show 

 a net profit, which, after providing for interest charges, amounts 

 of ^9836 [ = 847.866.89], reducing the debit balance brought for- 

 ward to /^78,235. 



